Host machines may host many virtual machines. Each such virtual machine is associated with a different media access control (MAC) address. The network interface controllers (NICs) for host machines are typically placed into a promiscuous mode to enable the host machines to receive packets that are directed to the MAC addresses used by the virtual machines. While a NIC is in the promiscuous mode, the NIC will process and forward all network packets that are received. Accordingly, many network packets that are not relevant to any virtual machine running on the host machine will be received, processed and forwarded on to the virtual switch for still more processing. This can create significant overhead for a NIC and the computer resources used by the virtual switch (e.g., processing resources and/or memory resources).